Marlborough wine grower Peter Yealands has sold a majority share of his company – Yealands Wine Group – to local electricity supply company, Marlborough Lines. The lines company paid $89 million for an 80 per cent share of the total shareholding for one of the country’s biggest wine companies and exporters. Yealands said the sale was a “marriage made in heaven”. There were very few wholly locally owned wineries in Marlborough, he said.
A feast of Gisborne’s finest cultural, historical and gastronomical attributes will be on show at New Zealand’s first Chardonnay and sparkling wine symposium early next year. Gisborne is to host Past, Present and Beyond… the Tale of New Zealand Chardonnay and Sparkling from February 4 to 5, on the back of the inaugural International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in Marlborough (February 1 -3). Chris Yorke, New Zealand Winegrowers’ global marketing director, said Gisborne is the perfect venue for the symposium.
Since launching her wine events company in 2010, Anna Hill has fashioned an exclusive sphere in the Australian wine landscape. As well as providing event management to some of the industry’s best-known names and luxury brands, Anna Hill Events has created tailored packages for the country’s leading boutique labels and specialist publications. With services including concept and development strategy, operations and delivery, public relations and media management for wine producers, distribution companies, new publications and hospitality clients, Anna Hill Events recognises the need for expansion.
Sommeliers Australia are inviting people to join them for a “Great Tasmanian Wine Dinner” at Sydney’s Quay restaurant in August. The four-course dinner will also feature a rare slection of some of Tasmania’s most exciting and revered vineyards and cellars. Each table will have its own dedictaed sommelier for the evening, and a selection of wines offered exclusively to that table. Sommeliers Australia told TheShout: “Given the intimate nature of the evening most wines will be available in very small quantities only.”
The high-speed Japanese bullet trains have been a much better bet for Cassegrain Wines managing director John Cassegrain than Australia’s liquor giants Woolworths and Coles. The NSW-based wine producer supplies about 700,000 small bottles of red and white wine each year to the operator of the Shinkansen bullet trains, JR Tokai, which hurtle around Japan at speeds of up to 320km/h.
The finalists in the inaugural Vinnovation Awards for South Australia have all produced outstanding solutions to improve vineyard returns with great ingenuity, reports the Wine Grape Council of South Australia. Bill and Phil Longbottom from Padthaway, Ben Blows from Macclesfield, Kim Anderson from Charleston and Hans Lodder from Coonawarra are all in the running for the award, which could see them walking away with a trophy, $2,000 cash and a Pellenc Lixion battery powered pruner valued at over $2,000 and donated by Pellenc Australia.
AN Orange winemaker has been fined $35,000 in penalties and court costs after he was found guilty of emptying toxic chemicals into a drain. Rex Nunzio D’Aquino pleaded guilty in Orange Local Court to a charge of polluting waters after he instructed an employee to empty 21 1000-litre drums into a drain leading from the helipad at Highland Heritage Estate to Summer Hill Creek. The drums contained remnants of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used on cotton crops, which is harmful to wildlife.
The final results of a ground-breaking three-year national organic grapegrowing trial are in – and the organic vines have come out shining. In the Organic Focus Vineyard Project, three vineyard teams transitioned half of their grapevines to organic production, while a team of scientists monitored the results and their wine industry peers looked on. For comparison, half of each focus vineyard site was managed under standard wine industry agrichemical practices.
Leading trade show in wine technology, SIMEI (International Enological and Bottling Equipment Exhibition) has announced there will be a new focus on craft beer for the first time in 2015. Workshops and laboratories will have sensory analysis and technological innovation as their subjects, through the account of experiences of famous beer masters and talk shows that will discuss the production problems and the future of the beer market. The public of operators will be able to take part in an in-depth study program that will illustrate the state-of the-art of the sector.
Increasing the demand and premium paid for Australian wine and increasing its competitiveness in the global market are the two priorities in Wine Australia’s five year Strategic Plan 2015-2020, released today. Over the next five years Wine Australia will annually invest $35 million in research and development, building markets, disseminating knowledge, encouraging adoption and ensuring compliance, according to Brian Walsh, Wine Australia chair.